Archive for October, 2008

If you are the type that is pre-disposed to making your statements via t-shirt, then Shirt Woot is for you. A different shirt is presented every day at a reasonable price. When it’s gone, it’s gone, so don’t dither. I dithered and missed out on this great one. Row versus Wade. Get it?

With the game on the line, Ron Artest came to the rescue for Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets. Artest scored seven points during a 16-2 run late in the fourth quarter that sent the Rockets to a 112-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night. But that’s not the only way he ingratiated himself to the big guy.

During the spurt, Yao caught an elbow from Dallas’ Josh Howard. When the two started to go face-to-face, Artest came running in between them. Officials weren’t happy to see Artest and blew the whistle. After huddling, they hit Artest with a technical foul that was probably more for his reputation than for the act itself. “It happens,” Artest said. “No punches thrown, no cursing at the referees. It was a part of the game type of thing. Somebody threw an elbow at Yao and I just reacted. It’s nothing to get upset about, nothing to hold a grudge about.”
if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object();
window.yzq_d[‘rQAqG9j8Yn4-‘]=’&U=13f7f0k7f%2fN%3drQAqG9j8Yn4-%2fC%3d698984.13038442.13242773.12597583%2fD%3dSKY%2fB%3d5515619%2fV%3d1’;

Yao certainly appreciated the support. He even went over to an official to gripe about the technical, saying, “He was trying to separate us.” Yao and Artest then slapped hands and walked away. “Ron’s a very good teammate,” Yao said. “That happened once in the preseason and he did the same thing. He’s trying to help a teammate, sacrificing himself.”

This could be a very interesting set piece in basketball. Yao is the notorious nice guy and Artest is the notorious hot head. If they average nearly 60 points a game together, it might be fun…

Debate the concept of global warming all you want. Two days after the end of British Summertime, it snowed across the Kingdom. Even London was hit by a light dusting last night – the first time the capital has seen snow in October since 1934. A lorry driver was killed when his vehicle collided with another lorry on the M40 in Buckinghamshire. Tonnes of lard being carried in one of the lorries was left strewn over all six lanes of the motorway causing long delays. Was it the lard or the snow that caused the delays?

It was through shear effort of will that I avoided the Obamathon on TV last night. I had spoken to a friend of mine who had mentioned a conversation with a member of the Georgia National Guard. They were discussing the alert status and mobility of the national guard in preparation for the election and inauguration. I had commented that this seemed like standard operating procedure to me. Maybe a bit more tension was felt by my friend because he lives in Atlanta? What New Orleans bon vivant Ray Nagin would call a “chocolate city”. It’s hard for me to tell what is what anymore and I frankly do not care. That my friend thinks a calamitous situation will arise during the election, regardless of the result, is pretty disturbing. If Obama does not get elected, the streets will burn because America is racist. If Obama does get elected, the streets will burn because destructive rioting is somehow a “normal” form of celebration (witness NBA championships and soccer titles).

I think that no matter what happens on election day, America is in a pickle. We have no choice to lead, an economy in the crapper, a lack of respect on the global stage, two simultaneous expensive wars to fight, an out of touch legislature and a populous that seems absolutely determined to ignite the race issue at every turn (publicly or privately). Good times.

Ah, the things we do in the name of “research and development”. I’m in the firearms business. We make specialized accessories for firearms. Making sure that they work is pretty important. Now, to be candid, nobody outside of military and law enforcement has a true need for a belt-fed automatic weapon. One like the M249 SAW‘s, pictured above. But there sure is an awful lot of want involved and, sometimes, want is plenty. I’ll be furthering our R&D efforts with a shiny new edition of this weapon. I promise not to have too much fun.